She-Hulk #20 [Spoilers]

First off, I was never a regular reader of Howard the Duck as a kid, but I did pick it up every once in a while, and thus found the bits of "Stu the Human's" adventures to be rather charming.

But that's beside the point, and not all that pertinent to whether I like this issue.

Mainly this book works on tying up loose ends. Lots of loose ends. Lots of flashbacks. Lots of "oh, so that's what happened there!" It does seem a bit crowded, although that could be only in contrast to the decompressed storytelling we're used to in modern comics; still, you get the sense that this issue is a little rushed in terms of needing to get a lot done very quickly. The husband thought it was terrible, and he generally likes this title well enough although he doesn't necessarily follow it closely. I thought it was all right, although not up to this title's usual quality, and if I were a new reader, picking this issue up would not get me to buy another one.

So now we know what happened to enable Jen to fight as She-Hulk during World War Hulk--and we know that Tony Stark is still a big jerk. We know what happened between Jen and John Jameson, and how he was finally convinced that their marriage was built on shaky ground and they're reallly over now--and we know that John is also something of a jerk. ("I thought I could convince you to change"...?) We know that Stu is all right. We know that Jen is, in fact, pressing her lawsuit against Tony, and I hope she wins, not only because she should but because it would likely set some sort of Registration-related precedent, which can only be good.

But there were also things to like in this issue--the scene where Jen views the DVD that Hawkeye made for her in the event of his deay, saying that he loved her. Very cute, especially Jen's reaction. Although I wonder whether any of the other death DVDs Hawkeye prepared might have expressed similar sentiments--Hawkeye was always crushing on one team member or another back in the day...

So, will we keep getting this after Slott is off the book? We'll see. I like the book. I like the character. I don't know that I like her enough to wait through a bad writing spell, though.